Best of 2003: Best Satanic Metal Band

Crimson Moon is composed of two musicians and a drum machine. Bassist/vocalist/lyricist Scorpios and Nocturnal Overlord (guitars, keyboards, drum programming) wear Kiss-style Kabuki makeup (whiteface with black patches dripping around their eyes and mouths to present a patina of WWF-level ferocity). They surfaced in 1994, earning praise and notoriety for their straight-faced obsession with all things occult. "I have studied the myths, magick, and lore of not only Sumerian, but Babylonian mythology," says Scorpios. "When I say study, I mean going further than just reading and practicing rituals from the Necronomicon." He seems so sincere, it's simply buzzkill to point out that the Necronomicon is a fictional invention of 20th-century gothic writer H.P. Lovecraft.